What I put up with for love

A new puppy is testing my tolerance for garden mayhem. Lola is a 4-month-old beagle mix who was brought up from Louisiana with her littermates to find adoptive homes in Massachusetts. She’s playful, affectionate, and all-around lovable. And she’s making a mess of the garden.

Lola's first day in her new home

    The first thing to go was a big puff-ball of ornamental grass, prairie dropseed (Sporobolus heteroleptus). When Lola first explored the yard, this plant attracted her irresistibly. Within in a few days, it was flattened. All the slender leaves were lying on the ground around the stubbly remaining base. Why this species and not a nearby dwarf fountain grass (Pennisetum alopecuriodes ‘Hameln’)? Search me.

Prairie dropseed trying to resprout

    Let’s face it, puppies chew and bite. Lola plucks leaves off container plants, chomps on sticks she finds on the ground, and gnaws on my gardening sneakers. That’s pretty much expected.

    Also predictable is how much she loves digging. The sight of me digging tempts her to join in. Rodent burrows drive her into a frenzy. 

Excavating a vole's burrow?

She’s developed a game: take a plush squeaky toy outdoors, dig a hole for it, drop it in and cover it by nosing soil back over it, then go back an hour or a few days later and “find” it, with great joy. Once she’s run around the yard with the muddy prize in her mouth, she starts digging another hole for it. This is cute when she chooses an inconspicuous digging spot behind large shrubs. It’s infuriating when she wants to uproot my favorite peonies to bury her treasure.

Please, not the peonies!

     I’m reduced to putting up mechanical barriers improvised from fencing and hoop stakes and applying bitter apple spray, which is supposed to make things taste bad—both only mildly successful. From what I’m learning, training is all about “capturing” the dog behavior you want and rewarding it. I guess that means when she digs in the right place, she should get a treat.

    My idea of a good digging spot would be the compost bin. Lola loves to pull out and chew half-made compost components such as rotting stems and chunks of turf. So far she hasn’t buried anything in the compost. That can be a goal to work toward.

How about burying things here?

    Usually I defend my garden fiercely. I shooed the kids out of the perennial beds. When my husband killed a succulent near the barbecue grill that he thought was a weed, I was hurt and indignant. A neighbor who cut back branches on my side of the fence got an angry letter.

    This feels different. Lola’s a baby, and I hope she’s going to grow out of her destructive ways. In the meantime, I’m glad it’s fall, because I can tell myself the foliage she plucks or tears was going to drop off soon anyway. The holes she digs will soon be camouflaged by falling leaves.

They can't fall too soon this year

    Spring will be the real test. Can I stand to watch her destroy fresh new leaves and flowers? I hope I won’t have to.

There’s still time. If you’d like to attend a sustainable gardening class in my yard Saturdays October 26 and November 2, you can sign up here through Newton Community Education.

Nadia, my garden companion

Our dog Nadia died August 31. I miss her for so many reasons. For one, she was my gardening companion.

Nadia

    Nadia was a German shepherd mix who was 10 months old when she came into our lives in March 2002. At that awkward age, she was full of nervous energy, dashing around the house and trying to understand her new environment. She’d been sent back to the shelter by her first family, who said their children hadn’t kept a promise to take care of her.

    Nadia seemed to have had a good life before her four scary days back in the shelter. She liked humans and knew how to live with them. Our family of four went to Jamaica Plain to meet her and brought her home in our Subaru wagon. We imagined she’d stay in the far back while we sat in the seats. Instead, she leapt into the back seat and then the front to nuzzle us excitedly.

She liked to sit up front

 
    Once we got home, she explored the backyard. She loved to play tag but couldn’t see the point of retrieving anything. She buried bones in the compost piles. She designated a digging spot next to the side porch, where she excavated a hole three feet deep. I always imagined she was chasing a chipmunk that was desperately extending its burrow a few inches ahead of her. 

    We fell into a routine: three walks per day, including a visit to a park where she could go off-leash. That meant I got to know some beautiful conservation land at all seasons. As she enjoyed the scents and greeted the other dogs, I had a chance to observe the landscape around us. My sustainable gardening approach was born partly from that daily time outdoors.

Sampling the breeze at the dog park

    Although our yard was completely enclosed by fences, I think Nadia was just humoring us by staying inside them. One day she left the dog park without me when two big wolfhounds frightened her. I searched frantically. When I got home, she was inside the fenced yard, and the gate was closed. We never found out how she got inside.

    While I gardened, Nadia kept me company, lying on the porch surveying her domain or strolling around the yard, occasionally checking on my progress. 

Nadia helps with a study session

Rabbits frightened her, but she loudly repelled any dogs or cats attempting to breach our perimeter. At first the sight of me digging would inspire an irresistible desire to join in. As she got older and calmer, I was able to persuade her that I’d rather she didn’t help.

    Nadia enjoyed zestful good health until age 15. Then she started to slow down and developed medical problems that afflict older dogs. In her last few months, she had little appetite and lost 15 pounds. It was so sad to see our old friend confused, anxious and uncomfortable. Now I picture her young again, playing in Elysian fields. Her spirit is still very much with us.